Minister for Children calls for public services to support fathers

31 January 2006

Beverley Hughes, the Children’s Minister, has called for all children’s services to engage proactively with fathers for the benefit of their children. Speaking at a Fathers Direct seminar in Westminster on 24th January 2006, she emphasised how much fathers matter to their children’s development and set out some of the ways in which the government was strengthening policy to ensure that children get the best from their dads from the earliest stages.

She said: "We know that the involvement of fathers in their children’s learning and education is associated with better educational outcomes, better school attendance and behaviour and higher educational expectations. There are also associations with better social and emotional outcomes for their children.

…"I believe passionately that fathers have a vital role to play. They can make an enormous contribution to maximising their children’s experiences and outcomes. However, I recognise that to achieve this we will need to do more to acknowledge the contribution that fathers can make; and do more to make them feel valued and do more to ensure that public services give them the support they need."

Why we need fairer policies for mums and dads: Guardian video

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